I [45/M] just made my daughter [15/F] cry. Said some hurtful things. Reddit, I f-ed up. How do I fix it?

You keep trying to qualify your words and pretend you didn't mean them in a certain way. BULLSHIT.

It's like me calling my daughter ugly, then trying to say I meant in a classically beautiful way, and not a mainstream beauty way. A quirky ugly, that's actually pretty.

We both know I called her ugly and am grasping at straws to excuse what I said.

You need to own up to what you said. Say sorry. DO NOT QUALIFY IT. Do not talk about what she did to make you say it. You are meant to be the adult here and you weren't.

You were pissed you made the gesture of making her favourite meal, then made her sit through it, because you were damned if you weren't making a big gesture and she was going to reject it.

Then when your idiot ploy of making her sit and watch you eat, didn't make her crumble and beg for a plate from you, telling you what an awesome father you were, you kept trying to engage her. When that didn't work, you got pissed at her "being disrespectful" when she didn't want to tell you what an awesome teacher you are.

You are a teacher, and I bet you're the "cool teacher" and love that your students think you're awesome. Now you have a daughter who is their age and can't figure out why she doesn't think you're as awesome as every one else does.

So instead of doing the adult thing and putting a plate aside for her, or letting her have it in her room, you force her to sit there while you regale everyone with tales of your awesomeness. Then freak out when this ingenious plan fails.

So how about you give her a little respect by giving her some space. I know you want to force her to forgive you and won't be able to handle it until you can regain your moral superiority again, but tough titties. You purposely made your daughter feel like shit and have to wait for her to get over it. Not just when you are.

/r/relationships Thread Parent